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We need to get more VNPS in our classrooms!
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good read and ideas
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Great resources and examples for beginning of math class
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- Jo Boaler’s norms for math class
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Good perspective on PLCs
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Good reflection grid for students
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- Why do students plagiarize? Most of the time it's probably due to two reasons: they don't know how to properly cite their sources or they don't know what to write.
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Hmmm verso used in math. Hadn't thought of this before!
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Teachers... You don't teach "math", you teach PEOPLE the subject of math :) A must-watch and read!
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- The purpose of the Ladder of Leadership is not to change other people, but to allow you to assess where other people are so that you can respond in the most helpful way. If you respond at the same level they are, then there’s no growth. If you respond too high, then there might be the temporary appearance of growth but it won’t be sustained.
- Leaders use “we” for success stories and “I” for failure stories.
- Remember, you can only control yourself. And while we can’t command others to move up the ladder, we can create the environment for them to move themselves up the ladder.
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Sunday, August 23, 2015
The best articles & resources I've found this week (weekly)
Sunday, August 16, 2015
CUE Rock Star Black Label - TOSA: Sunday afternoon (Shareology- Exploring the Art of Effective Communication)
Shareology- Exploring the Art of Effective Communication
Lisa Highfill
@lhighfill
Lisa's Website
Lisa Highfill
@lhighfill
Lisa's Website
- Idea with padlet: students just write their names on the padlet post and then drag it to one part of the "graphic organizer" you have put as the background (yes/no columns, 4 corners, etc).
- How do you communicate? Padlet Idea Wall
- Ideas I use already that I love:
- Trello
- Doodle
- Slack
- Voxer
- Remind
- Ideas shared on this Linoit wall and this Sharefest Doc. Some that I want to look at or try:
- Droptask
- "Sometimes I send emails and it is too hard to explain what you want in great detail. I use Movenote- an extension that will add a video message to your email!"
- "Hashtag in your google calendar. It's easier to search. For example, monthly dept meetings #CIA, all your meeting with show."
- Tech Minute YouTube playlist
CUE Rock Star Black Label - TOSA: Sunday morning (Pretzels and Peanuts: How to make sure everyone at the bar is thirsty: lessons from a seasoned drink mixer)
Pretzels and Peanuts: How to make sure everyone at the bar is thirsty: lessons from a seasoned drink mixer
David Theriault
- Always take your pictures landscape. Why? Because you're going to put them in a presentation or a keynote, and you want to use them later :)
- For PD with teachers:
- DON'T talk about the APP first, talk about the PROBLEM first!
- "Do you struggle with _____________" "I have an app for that"
- Rather than "Come learn about [this app]"
- Use short videos at the beginning of PD that will help set the mood and get teachers ready for the day.
- Find them on YouTube, Vimeo
- Speed Dating / Speed Geeking
- Traditional Speed Dating Setup
- 10 rooms, 10 topics to choose from, 10 minutes only. 1 minute rotations. 4 sessions (less than an hour). Students can do things!! Don't all have to do with tech.
- Twitter Chats on campus
- All in the same room (cafeteria) - thread projected on screen. For those that aren't on Twitter, write their answer on paper and have someone on Twitter take a picture of their writing to include them in the chat.
- Run a "Slow Chat" (weeklong twitter chat)
- Use "fortunately, unfortunately" style
- Takeaways from PD sessions:
- Write down what they want to implement on the block.
- Write down the "stumbling block" that will hinder them from implementing it
- Discuss and decide how to change the "stumbling block" to a "building block"
- Thinklink:
- Use for sharing resources
- Interesting idea about a way to present information to teachers... hmm...
David's Thinglink
Our Thinglink
See David's Thinglink above for links about these.
- Getting Teachers on Twitter
- David used a Bacon Doughnut Twitter Hunt... tweeted that there were doughnuts hiding in teacher's classroom who did use twitter. They could go get a doughnut if they learned about Twitter. Got a few more teachers on Twitter ;) Find the "bait" to pull them in.
- High Five Challenge: Give high fives or handshakes to every single student every day for a month.
- Empathy is huge - they have to know you care about them and not just your job.
- Even if it seems like it's not "productive" (going out to lunch, informal conversation) - this is huge because it shows you care about them and not just getting them to do things.
- Involuntary Curiosity Sparks - read this article later
- Javier Perez on Instagram - draws pictures out of ordinary objects. We all had to do it... here is my attempt at drawing...
Saturday, August 15, 2015
CUE Rock Star Black Label - TOSA: Saturday afternoon (Re-tool and re-engage your math instruction with 3-act lessons)
Re-tool and re-engage your math instruction with 3-act lessons
Jed Butler
@mathbutler
Jed's Blog
Perris Union High School District
Act 1
Engage, inspire, get students thinking and asking questions
Act 2
Students asking questions
Teacher gives information that students ask for
Students solve / answer the question
Act 3
The reveal
The Sequel...
Flip the Question
i.e.
"Here's a file cabinet, how many post-its?"
TO
"Here's a pile of post-it's, what size of file cabinet could it cover?"
Teacher notes and considerations for facilitating a problem-based lesson (3-act task) from our district's recent summer institute - led by Robert Kaplinsky.
Jed's Resources - too many awesome links! Check it out.
Jed's Slides
Jed Butler
@mathbutler
Jed's Blog
Perris Union High School District
Act 1
Engage, inspire, get students thinking and asking questions
Act 2
Students asking questions
Teacher gives information that students ask for
Students solve / answer the question
Act 3
The reveal
The Sequel...
Flip the Question
i.e.
"Here's a file cabinet, how many post-its?"
TO
"Here's a pile of post-it's, what size of file cabinet could it cover?"
Teacher notes and considerations for facilitating a problem-based lesson (3-act task) from our district's recent summer institute - led by Robert Kaplinsky.
Jed's Resources - too many awesome links! Check it out.
Jed's Slides
CUE Rock Star Black Label - TOSA: Saturday morning (Beyond Closed Doors & Echo Chambers: Creating a Culture of Collaboration and Sharing)
Beyond Closed Doors & Echo Chambers: Creating a Culture of Collaboration and Sharing
Adina Sullivan
@adinasullivan
adinaeducation.net
San Marcos Unified School District
All Resources
1. What are the barriers / biggest hurdle preventing teachers from collaborating and sharing?
Adina Sullivan
@adinasullivan
adinaeducation.net
San Marcos Unified School District
All Resources
1. What are the barriers / biggest hurdle preventing teachers from collaborating and sharing?
- Time
- Fear
- Competition
Time may be the excuse that people make, but I think of the quote I had posted in my classroom: "If it's important to you, you will find a way; if not, you'll find an excuse." I think it goes back to "collaboration and sharing are not valued by colleagues". If they saw the value that comes from it, they would make the time.
2. How do we move from a culture of "Me" to a culture of "We"
- It is "OUR" work, they are "OUR" kids
- FOUR ESSENTIAL CONDITIONS (summary sheet):
- They need a reason. Why should I change?
- There must be value. What is the value to me? How is this valued by others? Why is this even good for me? Is what I do even valued by anyone else? If not, why bother?
- Opportunity. When would I do this? We are all busy and have too many things on our plate? How can I fit it in? It will feel like something "extra" you are asking the to do.
- Models. What does it look like? What could it look like?
3. Examples shared
- Diigo - to share articles
- Staff Wikispace - to share lessons and curriculum
- ScoopIt! Boards - added link to certain boards on email signature. Can make group ScoopIt page for all to add to
- Teacher lesson Share (use AwesomeTable to make it easily navigate-able)
- EdTech News website (EdTech Newsletter is just a blog)
- everything links back to the same place. Lesson share, newsletter, demo slam, teacher spotlight, etc. You get them there for one reason and they have everything else at their fingertips.
- Demo Slam with Technology Leader Teachers
- A lot of times they just share what they are doing. What about what others on your site - what are they doing?
- Two minute share-out. It's timed :)
- Post about all of the slams publicly to share with those who weren't there!
- Teacher Spotlight every month
- Don't pick the teachers everyone already knows are "stars"
- Google Plus - create communities for teachers to participate in
Other Takeaways:
- Pull new teachers in early. Show and teach them things and they will think "oh, everybody does it here". As they start talking and sharing about it, the other teachers will start feeling like they are "behind" and (hopefully) will want to learn about the new things.
Our Ideas:
See our slide and all the others here
- Demo Slam
- During late starts, have 2-3 teachers volunteer to be a part of a "traveling slam" and visit each department to share a tech tool or strategy they are using.
- Other setup could be like "Speed Geeking" in that the first 15-20 minutes of a late start (before department time) is in a central location and teachers rotate through 3-4 stations with other designated teachers sharing their tool/strategy.
- If size of staff is concerning, split it up so half the departments come for one Wednesday and the other half the next Wednesday.
- Last option could be TeachMeet style where one teacher is sharing with the whole staff at one time (whole group) at the beginning of a late start.
- Look at Jon Corippo's Iron Chef Slides for how he does this with students
Sunday, August 9, 2015
The best articles & resources I've found this week (weekly)
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- I think warm-ups have three possible purposes:
- Elicit student thinking (see what they already know, activate prior knowledge)
- Practice retrieval (spiral review, spaced practice)
- Give feedback (review homework, circle back to prior work)
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Great reminder!
- No matter how your day is going, if anyone asks you how you are doing, you say ‘I’m fantastic. How are you?’ And you mean it!
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I have awesome co-workers, and this is one of them!
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I never knew all of this about Google Slides and the "master" templates!
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Linear Systems example
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Great quotes
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- This is a file of what I shared with my parents/students last night. I want them to know not only what strategies I am doing, but why I am doing them. Study Strategies – Parent Newsletter
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- Monster Math (Introduction to solving equations)
- Army Men and Circle Stickers for Learning Integer Operations (Negative Numbers),
- Mathemagic (More advanced simplifying equations and equation solving)
- The Pattern Function Connection (learning the connection between patterns, tables, and graphs and how to write a function from a pattern).
- Square Root Cheez-Its (Square roots, perfect squares)
- The CLAW (Distributive Property),
- Ski Slopes and Slope Guy (Slope – Puff, puff positive),
- Equation of a Line Song (y = mx + b),
- Turning Words into Math (Translating Algebraic Expressions)
- Solving for Y with Cups and Kisses (Solving equations for a variable),
- Dominoes Pizza (Linear equations),
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I've got to check out Thinglink for Video more! Really liking what I saw!
Sunday, August 2, 2015
The best articles & resources I've found this week (weekly)
Wow, so many great articles and links this week! I actually had time to look at a lot, and there's just a lot of great stuff coming in! Enjoy!
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I'm loving these #TMC15 takeaways since I wasn't able to attend. Getting lots of great ideas!
- use Matt Vaudrey’s “End your discussions in 5…4…3…2…1″ instead of “Ok, time’s up, guys!”
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What makes a good question?What makes a good activity?
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Game. Changer.So excited to use this next year!
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Great ideas for starting off the school year, math or not math. Good examples of students using tech for non-academic stuff to get used to it.
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- GRIT Discussion
- Make a design using desmos. There is a lot of math involved here. Use the help button for tutorials. Here are some examples https://www.desmos.com/art
Spend at least 20 minutes trying to make a design. Save and name your design. Get the url. (use the share button)
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- “Digital Citizenship” http://www.edudemic.com/first-five-days-of-digital-citizenship-at-your-school/
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I don't use CPM, but for those that do here are some pre-made Desmos graphs that go along with most chapters
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- As you reflect on your previous school year and plan for your upcoming school year, what #AskDontTell opportunities do and can you provide?
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- Before being in your class, all of my teachers would just give me information on a big silver platter. But when I enrolled into your class, you taught me how to learn things by myself and not expect things to be just given to me. Although it kinda hurt my brain a lot I guess it made my synapses fire. I found out that when you memorize something, you’ll eventually forget it, but if you try to learn it and understand it, the info just sticks to you.
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- “Ask, Don’t Tell” learning opportunities allow the mathematics that we study to unfold through questions, conjectures, and exploration. “Ask, Don’t Tell” learning opportunities begin to activate students as owners of their learning.
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- The mathematics unfolded through questions, conjectures, and exploration. “Ask, Don’t Tell” opportunities activate students as owners of their learning.
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Some more great ideas to start the year with!
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- not just been for me to provide opportunities for my students to enter into the Standards for Mathematical Practice – but for my students to begin to recognize when they are entering into the practices.
- Every quarter this year, I asked my students to reflect on a time when they participated in one of the mathematical practices.
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Sample Geometry Text
- I am happy to share this link to my dropbox where you can find a PDF of the 2nd edition of my text as well as a folder containing all of the HW assignments we wrote last year for the text.
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Good strategies for using Polygraph
- I “kept score” on the board. I wrote the word “Winners” on the board, and recorded a student’s name every time a game ended.
- I posted a list of Awesome Questions! on the board. I had a blank PowerPoint slide open and typed questions that I saw that used the vocabulary I wanted to see, and were actually helpful for differentiating between graphs.
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- I am going to start this class every day with a number talk. We will spend 10-15 minutes on the number talk, and I’m making a conscious decision that I don’t care what that means about how little time we will have for other material during the rest of the class period.
- I’m finally starting to learn that I need to stop throwing things at students and expecting them to figure out the instructions on their own. Things go so much better when I give them clear expectations for the assignment and make sure everyone knows what to do before I set them loose.
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- students need to be taught how to communicate mathematics effectively
- when we tell students too “show their work” they often don’t know what that means.
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Getting students talking!!!